As timely as the sweet summer bloom of lavender or bright orange tiger lilies, it’s also time for the annual blooming of summer comedy at Hedgerow Theatre.

Come summer, the magic of farcical comedy is prime as the company brings the funny once more in Ray Cooney’s most successful and longest-running stage show in London, “Run for Your Wife.”

“People schedule their vacations around these farces,” said longtime Hedgerow actress and educator Susan Wefel, who’s been in every Cooney play the company has produced for the past 12 years. “They’re fun to do.”

At the direction of veteran Penelope Reed, the cast of eight is ready to draw the laughs while bringing the script to life, including slamming doors, ringing phones and plenty of screwball mix-ups.

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The plot involves John Smith, a London taxi driver (Joel Guerrero) married to two women (Amy Frear and Alexis Newbauer). His life is sublime until he is involved in a mugging, of sorts, and is hit in the head.

After being taken to the hospital, it is there that the details of his life are revealed, and his world begins to unravel. Enter two detectives (Zoran Kovcic and Rebecca Cureton), along with a newspaper reporter (Susan Wefel), Joe’s friend, Stanley (Andrew Parcell), and neighbor, Bobby (Robert Pellechio), and the story turns on its head.

“I’m so excited to bring back this wonderful Cooney farce,” Producing Artistic Director Penelope Reed said. “I’m directing it this time, but when we first did it, I played one of the wives.”

The slapstick mayhem of the two-act play, reminiscent of British comedy like “Fawlty Towers,” works well on the stage, where the larger-than-life characters have room to pull the audience in. The comedic timing is essential in making the script work.

“Always in a farce, there are doors. There’s a lot of timing … timing is key,” said Wefel. “Once you get it, it’s pure gold.”

Wefel says that Reed is very insightful and under her direction it’s like “being in a master’s class in acting.”

“Run for Your Wife” first premiered in London in 1983, where its nine-year-run and popularity led the way for countless acting troupes to replicate the production around the world. It’s a period piece where today’s audiences may laugh at the once-accepted political incorrectness of the times. The show moves quickly with all of the entrances and exits onstage — but not too quickly.

“It’s like you’re on a train,” said Wefel, “So you don’t want to lose the audience.”

Reed, who’s been in the director’s chair for 21 years, doesn’t want to lose the audience either. In fact, she has the greatest respect for the faces in the crowd and doesn’t consider them “just spectators.” They’re part of the theater’s success.

Plan a night out to enjoy the farcical humor of a guy who’s created a mess of his life, and count on it to make your own lives pale by comparison. As humor is good for the soul, these days we need all the humor we can get.